Barcelona: Day 2

After a very long non-stop first day in Barcelona, we both were a bit tired and both had very sore calves. This, in my mind, is a recipe for a slower pace day. We started by stopping off at a sort of sketchy cafe near our hotel to get some cafe con leche. It was almost more of a diner and seemed to contain mainly local workmen. Smoking is still allowed inside of bars and restaurants in Spain and the place smelled quite smoky. But the cafe con leche was good enough and we were shortly on our way.

Our first destination for the day was the aquarium. The second largest in Europe (don't ask me where the largest is!), the aquarium is located on a really big pier extending into the sea. While this sounds like a description of the Seattle aquarium as well, I can assure you it is really quite different! It was quite expensive, but after not paying any money to go in anywhere the day before, we were willing to up the cash to get in. The aquarium consists of a variety of smaller tanks full of all kinds of funky looking fish (including some very unattractive Moray eels!) and one very very large tank that you pass under first along a partial tunnel on a moving walkway, and then in more of a full-tunnel on a moving walkway. While I found the walkway situation a bit weird, this was a very cool part of the aquarium. The tank contained a lot of smaller fish, as well as some sharks and sunfish, which for some reason I find very entertaining. A few sharks swam over the tops of the tunnels and I can assure you that those teeth look very frightening from that angle! This was followed up by some sort of learning bits (where we watched some string rays get fed, which I assure you was a strange thing to watch) and then paid an extortionate price in the cafeteria for some bottled water. The things we do when desperate!

After this we started to head over to the beach. To get there we had to walk down a big sort of promenade and then weave through sort of a sketchy neighborhood. We stopped in a random little shop walking through said neighborhood to buy some sandwiches, then sat on a bench along the beach to eat them. Luckily the sandwiches were quite tasty (and cheap!). It was a nice and sunny day but not exactly warm, but that didn't stop some locals from playing 'football' on the beach, one of whom was sporting a speedo. Ah, Europe. After enjoying some sitting time, we moved to another bench (this time armed with Magnum ice cream bars and diet coke) and had some more sitting time.

Our next stop was the Parc Guell, way across town (thanks Barcelona underground!) and up a hill. It's a park that was designed by Gaudi and originally intended to be an upper class housing development. Alas, only one house was eventually built but there's a very nice big park there now. It's home to some frequently photographed Barcelona landmarks, including the mosaic gecko and the curving mosaic benches (as seen above). Needless to say, we made use of these benches for a bit of sitting time. Oh, I might also add that the park is high up on a hill above the city, and you do have to walk up a good portion of that hill from the station, so we though the sitting was earned! We then walked around to the quieter bits of the park and found another bench for some extended sitting time while we decided what to do next. It was by this time a little after 4 and we decided we should return to the hotel by foot and then have a bit of a respite until it was dinner time. Ah yes, our second day in Spain and we were already diving headlong into the siesta concept!

Instead of heading again into the medieval quarter for dinner, we went to the Passeig de Garcia (or whatever it's called!), one of the main north-south boulevards in town that terminates at the Placa d'Espanya, where La Rambla then takes over and leads down to the water. The street is home to a lot of fancy stores, some moderniste architecture, and as we discovered, a very cool wine bar! We stopped off there for a pre-dinner glass and some fine Spanish olives. We then went to a random little casual tapas place as recommended in the guide book a few blocks down, and then returned to the wine bar for some more fine Catalonian wine and a cheese plate! There was quite an uptown-downtown contrast between the two places, but both had their charms! Thanks to the siesta, we were again able to stay out until a respectable hour (the Spanish would probably judge us for going to sleep so early, but we were pleased).

Barcelona! Day Uno

Yay for mini-break! Mark and I have just returned from 3 days in Barcelona. Let's start from the beginning:

About a week and a half ago I got an email from Mark declaring that he had snagged a hotel room in Barcelona for £10 a night for two nights. Deciding this made it worthwhile to go on an impulse trip, we booked some EasyJet flights and on Sunday morning, away we went! That is to say, at least, that we got up at 4am on Sunday morning, took the first bus of the day from Fulham to Victoria, got a train at 5:47 with a few random people going to the airport and a bunch of really weird people clearly going home after a night out. After a very smooth EasyJet flight we landed in Barcelona and checked into our hotel around noon, freshened up a bit and then hit the ground running.

Our hotel was about half a mile from the Sagrada Familia, which was handily the first stop on my Day One tour in my Frommer's book. We first ate some gas station sandwiches in the park and then decided we would up the cash and go in. We got a little confused and ended up going into the service entrance (there was a church service starting in 15 minutes). This allowed us to go into a little corner of the cathedral for free, whilst going into th rest of us would cost us €8. We decided the little corner was enough! For a little background, the Sagrada Familia was designed by Gaudi and construction started in the late 1800s. Due to the intricacy of the design of the building (and the fact that Gaudi had the audacity to get hit by a tram and die before it was completed and didn't leave any plans), construction on the cathedral is still on-going. The inside is relatively sparse, but the walls are white-washed and there were some beautiful stained glass windows (interior shot shown above!). To put it lightly, the outside is insane. It's ridiculously complex. Anyways, moving on!

We did a bit more walking and enjoyed the fine exteriors of some additional 'moderniste' designs before heading into the medieval part of the city, where streets where extremely narrow. By this time it was mid-afternoon, and especially being a Sunday, many things were either shut for the day or shut for 'siesta'. We sat for a while outside the old cathedral, hit Starbucks and did a little neighbourhood walk. Finally the cathedral opened up again and we were able to walk through (free entry people! but I donated some change) both the cathedral itself and go into the courtyard area. The courtyard is and always has been home to a gaggle of geese. Apparently they make good guards (seriously). Anyways, it was a very peaceful setting.

Being by this time around 6 we decided it was a somewhat acceptable hour to go get some tapas and try some cava, which is the local sparking wine. We went to a place recommended in the guide book within the medieval quarter. The food (and rose cava) were very good. Our first bit of bad luck hit us when we were leaving through those winding streets (at 7:30 pm, mind you), when a couple of local teenager types started to talk at us in Spanish and were trying to hand us some little fliers. Not wanting anything or understanding what they were saying, I walked ahead of Mark to get through them single file and quickly turned the corner. They then blocked Mark's path and sort of pinned him against the wall (luckily it was a metal door cover thing so I heard it and turned back around the corner) and essentially tried to pick his pocket. Mark being a savvy city type immediately put his hand over his pocket to keep them away, sensing that was what they were after. They then walked away and Mark and I continued on our way. Although I must admit I was tempted to go after them and beat them with my purse. So a bit shaken but otherwise in tact, we walked around for a while longer before deciding it was best to venture into another establishment before heading back to our hotel (we didn't want to be too uncool!).

That wraps up the first day in Barcelona! I've got plenty of pictures but haven't had a chance to put them on Picasa quite yet!

Pizza Express

Pizza Express is the name of a very prevalent restaurant chain in the UK. Despite what the name might imply, it's a somewhat classy sit-down restaurant with slightly dimmed lighting. It is certainly a lot classier than Pizza Hut, with no buffets or stuffed crust in sight. They serve a wide-range of Italian-style thin-crust pizzas, as well as a limited number of salads and pastas. In addition to being located on approximately every other street corner in the country, a limited number of their pizzas are available at the grocery store for home consumption (as is their 'dough balls' appetizer and for some reason, their salad dressing).

A pizza from Pizza Express will in general terms cost you £7-£9, the dough balls around £3 and a bottle of wine anywhere from around £12. In total, a meal for two will set you back around £35. While the food is always quite yummy and the atmosphere of most outlets is quite pleasant, I can't help but feel that the whole enterprise isn't quite worth £35. And clearly I'm not the only person who thinks so.

Back in the day, say mid-2008, it was a newsworthy event when Pizza Express printed two-for-one coupons in one of the Sunday papers, and I'm pretty sure restaurant patronage increased dramatically after these coupons were issued.

As times have gotten, let's say, 'worse', a lot of restaurants have suffered and some have had to close down. But I'm pretty sure Pizza Express is doing as well, if not better, than ever. You see, over the past few months these two-for-one coupons have become so prevalent that it almost silly to dine anywhere else. It really started with a streak of counterfeit online coupons that everyone latched on to readily, and some stores decided it was easier to accept them. These fake coupons seem to have done wonders for business, and now regular legitimate coupons are available on pizzaexpressoffers.com. We have also recently discovered that coupons are printed on the backs of movie tickets at our local theater. And for that matter, on the back of your card receipts from the movie theater. Basically, you go see one movie and can end up with 6 or so Pizza Express coupons - half two-for-one and the others for £10 off a £30 bill. In addition, they have recently started a two-for-one Wednesday promotion in conjunction with two-for-one Wednesday movie offers. As a result, the Pizza Express at Fulham Broadway has had massive lines out the door the last few weeks.

So it seems Pizza Express is currently winning in the battle of the fittest. While it will indeed be a sad day when these coupons start to dry up, it will almost certainly be a sign that the economy is improving, and so I like to think I'll be able to take it in stride.

Signal failure

I've been commuting on the London Underground for 17 months now, and I have never seen it fail as much as it has in the last two weeks. It's gotten to the point where I consider it a minor miracle if I'm able to get in or out of work without there being major or minor delays or some kind of line suspension. I've practically forgotten what it's like to have two such commutes in a day!

The following is a list of stations that have managed to have signal failures since the 'snow day' (last Monday) that have resulted in some sort of delays or partial suspensions of the district line:
Putney Bridge
Earls Court
High St Kensington
Notting Hill Gate
Baker Street
Moorgate
Aldgate
Barking
South Kensington

That's nine stations in essentially 7 working days (there wasn't one this morning!), although to be fair last Monday wasn't really a working day as the lines were just down due to 'adverse weather conditions'. So really that's 9 signal failures in 6 working days, or 9 out of 12 commutes. Some have just been minor, such as the ones at Moorgate and Aldgate and such, but others have resulted in complete nightmares. For example, yesterday morning I spent 10 minutes standing in a Circle line train at High St Ken that didn't have any power, and it then took 15 minutes to get to the next station once power to the lines was restored. One day last week I had to travel to work via Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly Circus is, I assure you, nowhere near my work or my house.

In addition to signal failures and 'adverse weather conditions', we've had some other great excuses for delays in the last few weeks: an earlier 'trespasser' on the line (to be fair this was for the central line), 'equipment' failure, a person taken seriously ill on a train, and my personal favorite was when we had delays coming home Monday evening because trains couldn't stop at Fulham Broadway because of an unsafe structure. This involved everyone peering out the window as we passed the station to try and figure out what was going on. Aside from some water from the ongoing downpour, nothing appeared to be out of order and there were no workmen on the scene.

I've been told that all these shortcomings meant that there would be 'no trains for the foreseeable future'. The general party line from the driver is 'we hope to be on our way shortly', although I've recently determined that they literally are just hoping and in reality have no idea. I've been 'advised' a multitude of times to do things I don't really want to do, such as 'seek alternate routes' and that my 'tickets will be accepted on local bus routes'.

Needless to say, I find the whole situation unacceptable. If they don't get the whole things sorted out soon, well, I guess there's not much I can do about that...

Billy Elliot

Lat night Margo got us tickets to see Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace Theatre at Victoria (for those that know the geography of London!).

Now the last couple of shows i've been to in the West End havn't in my opinion been that good! Especially seeing as they have just had a record breaking year in terms of profits/people numbers!

Now Billy Elliot has put my faith back into the system! The show was excellent and provoked all of the emotions! It including ballet dancing, tap dancing and what i'd term as modern free dance! The boy playing Billy was all action and was clearly loving every minute of it!

I guess the best thing about living and working in London is the fact that you can go to these things...jump on the tube and be home in under 30 minutes. When we saw Wicked when we lived in Southampton we had to walk through a deserted town centre at 2am after the journey home on the slow train!

Anyways i'm sure Margo will add more but if anybody is in town i'd highly recommend...likewise i think its recently opened in New York - though i'm not certain?

Snow day!

It's apparently made the news in those parts, but in case you haven't heard, it snowed! In London! And stuck! It's been very cold here for the last week or so and last night it started to snow. It snowed all night, sticking everywhere. 

Being next to the District Line, I was pretty sure it wasn't running this morning when I woke up. Well, not only was the district line not running (in these parts, at least) but almost no tube lines were running, a lot of the overground services were shut down, the airports were closed, and for the first time ever, all buses were cancelled. So Mark and I didn't make it to work today, but we both managed to get some work done from home (taking turns on the computer, I really must get that laptop fixed!). Quite frankly, it's been a bit of a boring day! I haven't actually left the house! 

There's still plenty of snow on the ground and its quite cold outside. More of the train lines are running, but thinks are still a bit of a mess out there. There has been talk that more snow might appear overnight. I'm actually scheduled to work from home tomorrow morning to wait in for a delivery, but at this point I think it's a) possible that I would have to work from home again if the Edgware Road line of the district line still hasn't opened and b) that if I do wait in, the delivery folks won't be venturing out to bring me my table and chairs! Hopefully it will all go smoothly...

Anyways, having not left the house, I don't think I can really add much more. However, I can relay second hand information! Mark did make an attempt to go to work this morning. Again, being next to the tracks, we could see that some trains were running towards the city (his branch of the district line), so he put on his massive waterproof boots and walked to the station to discover that a bunch of people had walked up from Putney to try and catch a train, and that while a few trains were going by, they were unable to stop at the station (it's outdoors and uncovered, so I image they literally couldn't stop), but everyone could feel free to walk one stop up in 5 inches of snow to Fulham Broadway where they were stopping. Mark didn't believe them (nor did anyone else) and instead threw in the towel and came back home. It's for the best, I think. The powers that be seemed to be discouraging people from traveling as there was more snow in the forecast for the afternoon (and we did get a bit more!). So alas, I think we're hoping for an improvement tomorrow just to relieve the boredom!